501 Minutes to Christ

Poe Ballantine's second volume of true American stories follows in the tradition of his first travel-come-memoir, Things I Like About America. As he wanders from town to town, from motel to boarding house, bus station to bar, old job to new - and as he counts, for the hundredth time, the handful of dollars in his pocket and wonders where he can get a cheap meal - Ballantine manages to capture in words an America so downtrodden, funny and surprising that it's hard to forget.